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PARKing Day Redux in Park Slope! (2007)

Continuing the PARKing Day excitement this weekend was the original Parking Spot Squat crew who took to celebrating a few weeks late after being shut down prematurely last month by Park Slope's 78th precinct.

StreetFilms was there talking to organizers, neighbors, passerby, City Councilmember Letica James and even drivers(!) - who didn't seem to mind the concept of taking back a parking space for public alfresco use. We love the little girl who says, "I've never sat in a parking spot before."

<br>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[intro music]</font> <br>
</p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:04]
Push it in. Excellent, now let’s go park for a while.
We just put a quarter in the parking metre so that we could park on
the park bench and relax and enjoy the day. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:16]
We are here on the Parking Day and this is a parking spot. I’ve
never sat in a parking spot before.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:27]
Oh yeah, they’ve got it cordoned off and they have nice benches and
it’s like a little café. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Eric McLure:</i> [00:32]
We’re feeding the metres to make sure that we’re in compliance like
anybody who would be parking here would be. You could take up
this whole space for about $125 a month, which I think is probably a
lot cheaper than any other per square footage deal in Park Slope. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Geoff Zink:</i> [00:48]
Well we attempted to participate in National Parking Day two weeks ago.
We were told to move along by the police officer that stopped nearby.
We still wanted to do the event so we cleared it with the 78<sup>th</sup>
Precinct, which is our local precinct, and so we’re doing it again
today. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [01:06]
The 78<sup>th</sup> Precinct even came by to check on us and made sure
everything was okay.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Leticia James:</i>
[01:10] Oh I’m glad, I’m glad officers are on the job. We
want to talk to our neighbours about the environment, about global warming
and about all that we can do to save our planet, and just say we’re
just taking over the street.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [01:22]
Parks are important because it’s a place for people to relax and hang
out, and I think a park is a better use of this space right here than
like a parking space. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [01:36]
I think the idea of having space for people to sit down where a car
would normally be parked is wonderful. But where does the car
go if it’s supposed to be in that spot?</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Eric McLure:</i> [01:46]
We as a society heavily subsidise parking for vehicles and if you applied
that same value to creating little parks for people we’d get a lot…
a bit more bang for our buck. And as you can see there, in a space
where you could park one car, you’ve got eight people sitting right
now enjoying coffee, soaking in the sunshine, chatting with their neighbours.
So really you can do a lot with this spot beyond just plonking a car
in it. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [02:17]
Hi. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [02:18]
Hi.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [02:19]
Do you mind telling me your reaction to seeing a park back there when
you’re trying to park your car? </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [02:24]
I think TA does this to give people an idea of like why it would be
better to have fewer parking spaces. In fact if more money were
given to Amtrak to have better rail service, we wouldn’t even have
to be driving.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [02:35]
As a car user this is… I totally support this. This is a good
thing and we should make this a permanent part of our use of the public
space. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Leticia James:</i>
[02:49] Hopefully next year we can take over a longer stretch of 7<sup>th</sup>
Avenue.</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
http://transcriptdivas.ca/transcription-canada/

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